


Baked Goods for Burnt Out Detectives

by cariad_scribe



Series: Locked-down [3]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Developing Relationship, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Multi, basically me purging lockdown feels in a fic, but they're also in denial, liv and rafa are in love, this is a lockdown series, won't be canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:07:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29717625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cariad_scribe/pseuds/cariad_scribe
Summary: Rafael has roommates for the first time since college, but he's making it work in the best way he knows how: food.
Relationships: Rafael Barba & Noah Porter Benson, Rafael Barba/Olivia Benson
Series: Locked-down [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2168718
Comments: 14
Kudos: 60





	Baked Goods for Burnt Out Detectives

**Author's Note:**

> This one has brief mentions of a domestic violence case that the squad pick up- injuries and the aftermath of that, but nothing graphic or particularly distressing. If that's something you don't feel comfortable reading please skip this chapter.

Rafael groaned lightly when the piercing sound of his phone alarm rang out. Rolling over, he clumsily, and with only one eye open, prodded the screen of his phone until he managed to hit the snooze button. He allowed himself a few more moments of being nestled in the warm cocoon of the blankets before pushing himself into a sitting position on the pull-out bed he was now occupying for the foreseeable future.

After agreeing to take Olivia up on her offer, Rafael had gone back to his hotel room to spend one last night there before handing the keys over to the owners. He didn’t have a great deal of luggage (really only enough clothes for the time he had originally intended to stay in New York) or indeed toiletries- so he’d spent the rest of the day gathering up spare items of clothing that he’d left at his mother’s and running to the pharmacy to buy himself some shampoo and toothpaste. He had pondered taking his dirty clothes to a laundromat, but he couldn’t seem to find any change and he didn’t think Olivia would mind if he borrowed her washing machine; considering they would be spending a significant amount of time in the same apartment anyway.

In the cab on the way over, he’d let himself panic about that prospect. Going round for dinner or parties was one thing, but living together was something else entirely. Were they even close enough for that sort of a set-up? Before he’d left New York maybe, but now? Things were different and there was Noah to think about. What was he, except some man taking advantage of their spare couch-bed and getting in the way of their routine? Rafael knew Olivia had tried to convince him that wasn’t the case, but with the city closing off bit by bit they were going to be stuck together for a little while at least. As someone who’d had his fair share of difficult roommates back in college, Rafael also knew that even the best of friends could come to hate one another after sharing the same house for a significant period of time.

He had been about to bail out of it all, when the cab driver arrived at Olivia’s building and Rafael had no choice but to pay the man and get out of the car. He’d carried his suitcase up in the lift, knocked on her door and felt the nerves kick in even further- right up until the point where Noah opened the door and nearly every bad feeling dissolved at being greeted by his excited face.

The boy had been beside himself when he’d found out that his Uncle Rafa would be staying with them for a little while (unlimited access to a playmate/story reader was simply the best news he’d seemingly ever had). Olivia had managed to distract him just long enough for Rafael to take his coat off, stow his suitcase out of the way and go to the bathroom before he’d been roped into a game of Snap on the living room floor.

In the cool light of the morning, Rafael took in his surroundings. He’d never been to Olivia’s apartment this early before; the curtains were drawn, but the sunlight was slipping in through the gaps and though there was the faint sounds of the city below, it was oddly peaceful. His makeshift bed had been comfortable enough, with its borrowed pillows and blankets. Olivia and he had parted ways for the night at around 11pm, after working together to clear away the coffee table and pull out the bed. She had already washed and gathered the blankets and pillows before he’d arrived and when he slipped into bed, he had been lulled to sleep by the clean scent of her laundry detergent (the one he had sometimes noticed beneath her perfume, if he stood close enough to her at work). Wanting to have the living room back to normal before she came in, Rafael climbed out of bed and pulled off the blankets and pillows, storing them in the box Olivia had provided especially in the corner of the room. It took him a few minutes to figure out how the bed frame folded back into the couch, but he managed it well enough- only slightly skinning his shin on a sharp metal corner as he did so. After putting the couch cushions down and pulling the coffee table back to its original position, Rafael went to open the curtains, letting the sunlight stream into the room properly. His bare feet were spared the cold floor, due to a rug she had down, but it wasn’t exactly warm so Rafael fetched his toiletry bag and some clean clothes from his suitcase- taking a detour to the bathroom via the kitchen to switch on the coffee machine for the pair of them.

Yawning and rubbing his eyes, Rafael didn’t think to knock before opening the bathroom door. The apartment was so silent he’d just assumed he was the only one awake, wanting to get dressed first so he wasn’t in the way when Olivia needed to get Noah ready for school.

The sight of his friend stood in nothing but an over-sized t-shirt and short cotton boxer shorts, hair mussed from sleep and a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth made him realize he definitely should have knocked.

“Shit,” he swore, pulling the door shut quickly to block him from seeing anything else, but it was too late. The image of her smooth, shapely legs and the baggy t-shirt skimming the tops of her thighs was possibly forever seared into his brain.

“Rafael?” he heard her call from behind the door, but he was already running back into the living room. He’d not even been there twelve hours yet and he’d already been caught staring at her in the bathroom. _Like some kind of pervert_ , he told himself in his head. _No, no it wasn’t that bad_ , he then tried to reason. She was obviously just in her sleepwear- it could have been worse. She could have been in the shower.

_God, don’t go there_.

He groaned roughly and rubbed his face.

“Rafael, are you ok?” she’d managed to catch up with him, still holding onto her toothbrush. He tried to meet her eye, but it was difficult. She still wasn’t wearing anything on the bottom.

“Fine, sorry I uhh- I should have knocked, that was so rude.” he rambled, not feeling very clever at all; which was a change from usual. “I shouldn’t have, please forgive me I didn’t mean-,”

“Woah, slow down.” she laughed, holding up her hands. “Its fine, Rafa, seriously. I was just brushing my teeth- you didn’t see anything I’m not comfortable with.”

“Oh… alright.” he replied, perplexed. “It’s just that you’re not, well… I don’t know, dressed?”

At this, Olivia seemed to suddenly remember that she was still in her pyjamas. He watched her skin flush slightly- perhaps she was less comfortable with him seeing her like that than she had initially argued. She crossed her arms over her chest, which in turn made Rafael realize that she probably wasn’t wearing a bra. He turned his head to the side, so she was barely in his peripheral- still awkwardly holding his clothes and toiletry bag.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot you were here when I woke up, I just went straight to the bathroom.” Her words were clipped; now also embarrassed by the situation. “Let me just finished brushing my teeth and I’ll let you do what you need to do.”

She returned to the bathroom with a flustered smile, leaving Rafael stood in the middle of the living room. Trying to forget the awkward exchange, he sat down on the newly remade couch and shook his head. He could hear the tap running in the bathroom, and then the sound of her opening the door. She called out to him from the hallway;

“I’m going to get dressed, feel free to use the bathroom!”

Her cheery demeanour was obviously a cover-up for the embarrassment, but Rafael tried not to dwell and instead waited to hear her bedroom door shut before getting up.

~~~~

By the time he had washed and dressed (in jeans and a shirt/sweater combo, as he didn’t have any reason to be in his fancy court clothes) Noah had risen and was sat at the bar in the kitchen, swinging his legs as he ate his cereal.

“Mornin’ Uncle Rafa!” he exclaimed around a mouthful of Cheerios.

“Good morning Noah.” Rafael replied, returning his toiletry bag to his suitcase.

“Are you gonna take me to school?” he asked, still chewing his cereal as he spoke.

“Noah, don’t talk with your mouth full.” Olivia chided, pouring out some orange juice into a plastic cup and passing it over to her son. “Uncle Rafa’s probably a bit busy this morning.”

“Actually,” he interrupted, coming over to join them in the kitchen. “I can’t think of a single thing I need to do this morning.” Had things been running smoothly, he would have been already on a plane back to Iowa by now.

“Really? You’ll take me to school too?” Noah was practically bouncing in his seat with excitement. “I can show you my playground, and the hook where I put my coat and you can meet my teacher Miss Collins-,”

“Slow down there Mr Benson,” Olivia interrupted. “Uncle Rafa can’t come into school with you.”

“But-,”

“No buts, don’t be silly,” Olivia continued, shaking her head. “Drink your juice and then go and get dressed.” Noah sighed, before glugging back his small glass of orange juice, hopping down from the chair and running into his bedroom.

Rafael found himself alone with Olivia for the first time since they’d bumped into each other earlier that morning. She handed him a mug and gestured to the coffee machine, leaning against the surfaces and nursing her own cup. He sorted out his drink, splashing in the least amount of milk possible but making up for it by adding twice the amount of sugar he knew she took.

“You don’t have to come with us this morning,” she told him. “Noah won’t really mind, he’s just over-excited about you being here. If you have other things to do-,”

“Liv, seriously the only thing I have to do today is check my emails and see if I will have any work to do in the future,” he explained, blowing on his coffee and eyeing up the bananas that were resting in the fruit bowl. “Kind of hard for me to fight regional voter fraud when I’m in the wrong region.”

“Have any of your colleagues contacted you yet?” she asked, turning away from him to clear away Noah’s breakfast.

“Not yet, but I obviously let them know I couldn’t make it back like I originally thought I would.”

“So what are you going to do with all this free time?” she quipped, looking over her shoulder at him.

It was a question he’d asked himself quite a few times since cancelling his flights. In truth, he wasn’t sure of the answer. Unless the team he had been working with in Iowa had some work he could do remotely, he was going to be without a job.

“Wish I knew.” he replied simply, draining the last of his coffee. “If nothing turns up I’ll just have to go insane.”

“Well as long as you do it quietly I won’t mind.” she smiled, pleased with her little joke. He fixed her a look, before going to rinse his mug in the sink.

“Momma, I can’t find my socks!”

~~~~

Rafael had never been a part of the infamous ‘school run’ before. He’d heard enough about it second-hand of course; from Olivia, and Amanda and Eddie a few times. Based on their horror stories, he’d pictured a chaotic scene littered with screaming children, gossiping mothers and unavoidable traffic.

The traffic was definitely there, but the children weren’t as loud as he’d anticipated. It was actually quite sweet, watching them greet their friends and teachers with the kind of enthusiasm only small children could manage. Rafael couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so happy to see someone he had jumped on their back.

The parents however- that was a different story. He’d gone up to the school gate with Olivia and Noah, but hadn’t crossed the threshold; he obviously wasn’t on the pre-approved list of parents or guardians required by the school administration, so he let Noah hug him goodbye and waited on the sidewalk whilst Olivia walked him onto the playground. He checked his phone as she said goodbye to Noah and chatted briefly with the other adults, but couldn’t escape the feeling of being watched. When he chanced a look up, he saw that the huddle of women Olivia was stood with were smiling at him.

Perhaps sensing his awkwardness, Olivia eventually managed to excuse herself and joined him back at the gate- wearing an apologetic expression.

“I take it my presence has upset the balance of things?” he joked, falling into step with her as they walked back to her car.

“I made the mistake of correcting them when one of the moms asked if you were one of my detectives,” she explained, stuffing her hands into her coat pockets. “Now they’re determined to figure out if ‘friend’ is code word for something else.”

Rafael wrinkled his nose. Once again, he’d found himself at the center of the rumour mill- though admittedly, playground mothers and tabloid newspapers weren’t exactly on the same level.

_He hoped_.

She dropped him back off at her apartment before going to work. He set himself up on the sofa, letting another cup of coffee steam away on the table as he opened up his laptop and hoped to find something to do.

~~~~

Later, after a few hours of replying to emails and checking up on the progress of his team back in Iowa, Rafael heard a key turn in the lock and was greeted once again by Noah who had been picked up from school by Lucy whilst Olivia was still at work.

When Noah had been getting his homework out, Rafael made Lucy a cup of tea whilst she fixed the boy an after-school snack and explained their usual routine- most mornings Olivia was able to take him to school, but Lucy almost always did the return trip and then stayed with him until his mother got home in the evening. She hadn’t been surprised to see the lawyer in the apartment (her boss having explained the situation prior) and enjoyed talking with him about her work with Noah and the college course she was taking.

The three of them ended up sitting together at the table, getting through Noah’s homework and then playing an ill-advised game of hangman (Noah’s literacy was still progressing, which meant at least one of the adults had to know the word in order to help him spell it). By the time Olivia had got home, Rafael, Noah and Lucy had even managed to cook dinner- well, rustle up some pasta from what there was in the fridge.

Lucy stayed for dinner, at Noah’s insistence. Rafael hadn’t planned the day to go as it did- hadn’t really had any plans at all-, but Olivia seemed happy enough with the results of their combined cooking efforts and he had enjoyed feeling useful in a home that wasn’t his.

“I could get used to this.” Olivia had confessed, once Lucy had left for the day and Noah was quietly playing with his Lego on the living room floor.

“You gonna hire me as a personal chef?” Rafael asked, passing her a clean plate from the sink for her to dry. “I don’t have all that many recipes up my sleeve.”

“Hey, just having someone cook for me instead of ordering take-out is a treat.” she wiped down the plate with a cloth and added it to the stack forming next to her. “Ed always wanted to go out to eat and I don’t think Brian even knew how to turn the oven on.”

Rafael tried not to think too much on that comment- she hadn’t seemed to realize the connotations of comparing him to two of her exes, and he wasn’t about to make it weird. Especially not after the uncomfortable encounter they’d had that morning.

“My grandmother made a point of teaching me the basics before I went to college,” he explained. “But I have to confess that years of living alone and late nights at the office sort of ruined any opportunities I had to properly cook.”

“Well feel free to take advantage of my kitchen. The best it’s seen in recent years is oven pizza and Kraft mac and cheese.”

Rafael smiled at her as he handed her the last of the dishes to dry, already mentally figuring out how he could repay her kindness at letting him stay with food.

~~~~

Thus began a new routine- when Olivia took Noah to school in the morning, Rafael would accompany, on the occasions when they needed groceries, which he would collect when Olivia went to work. He’d sometimes get an Uber back to the apartment, or sometimes he’d walk if the weather was nice and then restock the fridge and the cupboards before trying to hear more from the people he used to work with in Iowa.

It seemed more and more likely as the days went on that Rafael wasn’t going to be given much to do from his old colleagues. He hadn’t taken any work with him to New York, aside from what was on his laptop, and they couldn’t send him any paperwork either, due to the sensitive nature of the job. Reluctant as they were to lose such a talented lawyer, it seemed inevitable that Rafael was going to have to look for other work at some point.

He’d just finished a phone conversation with one of his previous colleagues, and was about to get up and make himself another cup of coffee, when his phone starting ringing again.

“Liv, what’s up?”

“Hi, are you busy?” she asked in a harried voice.

_Less and less so actually_ , he wanted to reply. When he stood up from the couch, his lower back clicked.

“Not really.” he replied. “You need me to do something?”

“Would you be able to pick Noah up from school?” she quickly asked. “Lucy just called and said her roommate just had a nasty asthma attack and she doesn’t want to leave her alone.”

“Sure,” Rafael replied. “Is that ok, though? Y’know for me to be at the school.”

“I just called the office and explained; you’ve been put on the list of approved caretakers.” She sounded rushed, as though she was calling him whilst walking somewhere. “Is that ok?

“Yeah Liv, that’s fine. Are _you_ ok?”

There was a muffled sound, some nondescript clicking and tapping and then her voice returned- tinny and distant.

“Sorry I had to put you on speaker, I’m driving now. It’s nothing, I was just talking with Carisi at the courthouse and then Fin called to say there’s stuff I need to come and deal with at the office.”

“I thought he was sergeant?” Rafael asked, going to locate his shoes and coat. “Doesn’t he know how to put out fires by now?”

“Some fires require a little extra man power,” she answered. “It’s just been one of those weeks.”

Rafael nodded, even though she couldn’t see him. He managed to pull his shoes and coat on whilst still holding the phone, then plucked the one spare key up from where it lived in the dish by the front door.

“Alright, I’m just about to leave now.” he told her.

“Thank you,” she sighed. “You don’t understand how helpful it is to have you here right now.”

From the stressed-out level of her voice, Rafael thought he could make an educated guess.

~~~~

“…and then I put my hand up in class because I knew the answer,” Noah continued, not having stopped talking since Rafael had met him at the school doors. He’d been so thrilled to see him, introducing him to all his classmates as ‘Uncle Rafa’- a statement that Rafael could see the other mothers were quietly stewing over with glee.

“That’s good.” Rafael replied, not for the first time since they’d started walking home.

“Miss Collin’s gave me a sticker because I was so smart!” Noah exclaimed. “Did you ever get stickers for being smart when you were in school Uncle Rafa?”

“Umm,” he laughed, trying to remember. “I’m not sure. I don’t know if I was as smart as you when I was your age.”

“Really?” Noah’s face screwed up in confusion. “Are you sure? Because once I heard Aunty Manda say you were a ‘real smart-ass’ to Uncle Fin.”

Rafael bit back another laugh at Noah’s statement- it didn’t surprise him, and was probably one of the tamer things he’d been called by the detective.

“I’m sure she did, but that’s not really what it means. In fact I’m not even sure you’re allowed to say it.”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Noah apologized earnestly. “I didn’t know it was a bad word!”

“It’s alright; I won’t tell if you won’t.” Rafael said, squeezing Noah’s hand. “Just don’t say it again, to be safe.”

Noah mimed zipping his mouth shut and carried on walking alongside the lawyer back towards the apartment. In his pocket, Rafael felt his phone vibrate, and when they paused to let a woman with a double stroller go by them on the sidewalk, he pulled it out to read the text;

_Domestic violence victim just come in, beaten beyond belief. We’re trying to locate her husband, he’s in the wind. Probably won’t be home until late, sorry._

Rafael fired off a quick response to say that it wasn’t a problem, wished the squad luck in finding the husband. He didn’t say he hoped the woman was ok- he wasn’t naïve enough to believe that she would be for a long while yet.

Instead he squeezed Noah’s hand again and let the little boy pull him along the street, back towards the apartment in search of another after-school snack and cartoons.

~~~~

Rafael got Noah involved in chopping some vegetables for a soup recipe he had seen in a cookery book Olivia admitted to rarely using, and let him stir the pot carefully whilst the ingredients bubbled away.

He’d found, when they arrived back at the apartment, that he couldn’t seem to switch his SVU prosecutor brain off; running through questions and answers in his mind about the evidence needed to convict the husband, the prepping the wife would need if the case ever went to trial.

The careful monitoring of the home situation if the worst happened and she decided to go back to him.

He hadn’t worked with the squad in a long while, but Olivia’s text reminded him of the way things were; him being informed of new cases as and when they happened, him strolling in and out of the precinct multiple times in a week to talk to the detectives. He missed it. He missed _them_ (though if any of them asked he would never admit it.)

Noah had completed his homework while they let the vegetables stew for a bit, then watched giggling as Rafael tried to use the stick blender without spraying soup all over the kitchen- he wasn’t entirely successful, even less so when Noah asked to have a go and a considerable amount of blended carrots and peppers ended up in both of their hair. Rafael didn’t know how comfortable Noah would be with him helping him bathe, so he settled for getting a towel from the bathroom and rubbing the little boy’s hair with it until he felt like the majority of the soup remnants were gone.

He also wasn’t sure whether Noah would even want to try the soup ( _all kids hate vegetables right?_ ) but perhaps being involved the process of cooking it had converted him, because he wolfed down an entire bowl and a buttered roll much quicker than Rafael did. He was quietly impressed with the boy’s appetite, which threatened to rival his own.

It then got to the point in the evening- around 7pm- where Noah would usually be winding down for bed, but Olivia was still nowhere to be seen. Rafael hadn’t ever put Noah to bed on his own before. He understood she was busy, but he wasn’t exactly an expert on the whole childcare thing- mostly just letting Noah lead and hoping for the best.

“Do you know how to brush your teeth on your own?” Rafael asked him, as they sat on the couch with one of Noah’s school reading books. The boy nodded, as he silently mouthed the words on the page.

_That’s something at least_ , Rafael thought to himself.

On the coffee table, his phone rang out. Noah could see Olivia’s name flash on the screen.

“Momma’s calling you!”

“Hello?” Rafael answered, after reaching forward and accepting the call.

“Hi Rafa,” Olivia replied, her voice somehow even more tense that it had been earlier that day. “Sorry I’m not going to be back for a little while still.”

“Everything ok?” he asked, already knowing it wasn’t.

“Amanda took the vic to the hospital, to get her checked out- she had so many bruises, possibly a cracked rib,” she began to explain. “Anyway she slipped out when the doctor left, we think someone called her whilst she was waiting to be seen. Should have taken her phone; rookie mistake.”

“It’s not your fault Liv,” Rafael told her, standing up from the sofa and walking towards the kitchen so that Noah wouldn’t be within earshot of their conversation. "Did she seem like she was ready to leave him for good? Would she have testified?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “He really did a number on her, but she doesn’t have any family in New York and his mother seems involved somehow… we’re in the middle of trying to track her down - hopefully she leads us to him too.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” he said and then shook his head. “Sorry, wrong turn of phrase.”

“It’s fine. Just the job…”

“Yeah…” Rafael trailed off, wishing he was still in a position where he could get in a car and go to the precinct as well- to offer legal arguments and press them for evidence in the way he always knew got on their nerves, but forced them to all work harder.

“How’s Noah?”

“He’s good,” Rafael answered. “We made vegetable soup, had that for dinner- he did get a bit in his hair when we were cooking, but I think I got it all out.”

“Noah ate soup?” she asked incredulously, but he could hear the smile in her voice. “What kind of witchcraft did you pull there?”

“I don’t know, I guess it was just beginner’s luck. There are leftovers for you as well.”

“Personal chef strikes again.” she quipped, bringing a smile to Rafael’s face. “I know I’ve asked you for a lot of favours today; getting Noah from school, making sure he eats- but do you think you’d be able to put him to bed in a bit? I don’t think I’ll be home in time.”

“I only count three favours there,” Rafael argued, walking back into the living room. “So you’re still in credit in my eyes. And yes, I’ll try my best.”

“Can you put him on the phone?”

Rafael handed his phone over to Noah, who took it eagerly and began chatting away about school and the soup endeavour. Rafael could hear Olivia’s distant voice from the other end of the call, but not well enough to make out any words.

“I will Momma. I love you! Bye!” he passed the phone back to the older man. “She wants to talk to you again.”

“I made him promise to go to bed properly,” she explained when he put the phone back to his ear. “But let me know if he gives you any trouble.”

“Will do,” he replied, winking at Noah from the other end of the couch. “Let me know when you’re on your way back.”

“Alright, see you later.”

Instead of putting the phone back down on the coffee table, Rafael took a few moments to scroll through his social media. He wasn’t particularly active- he only uploaded pictures when he felt like he had something significant to share and that wasn't all that often- but he was a prolific lurker on other people’s profiles.

Olivia’s was mostly pictures of her and Noah, the odd landscape shot of the Manhattan and an occasional group photo of the squad at social gatherings. Amanda shared a lot of dog photos and Finn’s was almost always screenshots of his music playlists. Carisi was the most consistent- the amateur photographer uploading almost daily with pictures of food, his family and the squad, arty shots of the city as well as various selfies with anyone else who was willing at the time to be snapped.

In fact, Carisi’s social media profiles had at one point been his main source of information when he had left New York; the man’s tendency to over-share spilling over into his digital footprint meant that Rafael was able to check up on the squad without having to actually talk to anyone.

His most recent post was of the remains of a panettone he had made at Christmas, alongside the caption “ _cake for breakfast_ ”. Underneath it, various people had commented. Amanda was complaining that he hadn’t brought any in for her, his mother was telling him to eat some fruit. Olivia’s comment was the most recent- “ _I can’t remember the last time I ate any cake at all! Looks delicious!_ ”

Rafael paused. He turned his head towards the kitchen, deep in thought. In the fruit bowl, he noticed the few bananas that had been there all week- untouched and browning.

“Hey, Noah? Do you and your mom like banana bread?”

~~~~

Olivia sighed with relief as she came in through the front door. It had been pretty much a fourteen hour day, something she had tried not to do so much since becoming captain, or indeed a mother. She hung her coat and bag up, unclipped her gun and badge to put them in the safe in the hall and then took off her shoes with another sigh.

Before she did anything else, Olivia went to her son’s bedroom and poked her head through the gap in the door. He was fast asleep, Eddie the elephant tucked under his chin and the nightlight illuminating his rested face. Happy with that, Olivia walked back into the main area, with the intention of collapsing on the sofa. But something caught her eye.

Resting on the kitchen counter-top was a large plate, displaying a loaf of freshly baked banana bread. It had some kind of frosting on the top, dripping down the sides messily, but that didn’t make it look any less delicious. Olivia felt her mouth water.

“You’re back,” Rafael’s voice came from the corridor, where he entered the kitchen from. “How did it go, did you track either of them down?”

When Olivia turned to look at him, her drooling reaction at the cake shifted immediately into a serious case of dry mouth. He was wearing pyjama bottoms (blue plaid, not unlike one of the shirts he used to wear to court) and a worn Harvard Law School hoodie, the cords hanging uneven against his chest. His hair was damp, as though he’d not long got out of the shower, and was curling in a delightfully dishevelled way; hitherto unseen on the well-kept lawyer.

“Uh, no- I mean, yes we found both of them, at home.” Olivia replied, suddenly out of sorts. “His mother called a cab for her, we couldn’t convince her to come back.”

Olivia briefly recalled the glazed over expression the young woman had been wearing when they met her again on the doorstep of her house. She was still bruised of course, but she’d since applied make-up and was wearing clean clothes. The way the husband had held an arm around his wife, and assured her and Fin that everything was sorted, made Olivia’s blood run cold.

“I wondered if that might be the case,” Rafael said, moving towards the kettle in the kitchen and flicking it on. He grabbed two mugs from the cupboard and dropped two green tea bags into them, it being much too late for coffee. “Sorry it happened though.”

“We’re keeping tabs on both of them,” Olivia explained, moving to sit at the breakfast bar. He looked unbelievably domestic- having now figured out where everything was kept in the kitchen and moving around it with ease. She didn’t know how to feel about it. “Umm, what’s this?”

He turned at her question, smirking at her when he found her pointing at the cake set on the counter-top.

“Banana bread,” he answered, putting his back to her again as he poured the boiling water over the tea bags. “With dulce de leche on top, because you miraculously had the ingredients for that too and my sweet tooth took over.” He passed over her mug and rested his hands on the table between them. “I promise Noah only licked half the bowl before he went to bed.”

“Why?”

“Because I let him help and turned my back at the wrong moment. It’s a miracle he went to sleep at all, but that’s on me.”

“No,” Olivia laughed, shaking her head. “I mean why bake it in the first place? Not that I’m not _very_ grateful, but…”

Rafael shrugged, the tips of his ears turning a little pink.

“The bananas were about to go bad, you had a long day. _Mi abuelita_ always had something sweet lying around for emergencies.”

Olivia felt her chest flood with warmth, both for the man standing in front of her and the grandmother who’d instilled in him values and knowledge that continued to benefit those around him. He was looking at the cake with a shy smile as she wrapped her tired hands around the warm mug of tea.

She would be saying something stupid soon; if he continued on the way he was going.

“Well are you going to cut me a slice or not?”

**Author's Note:**

> I have a list of word/ideas related to the nonsense we all experienced through last year's many lockdowns, so each work in this series will be based off one of those. This one was hooked on banana bread, because when faced with a traumatic event we all collectively decided to bake and I love that.


End file.
